Last Week at the MTC!

I got special permission today to email because I am flying to Colorado Springs on Monday in the morning.

 

This week has been a roller coaster ride. One of the sisters in my district went home, and a few days later my companion decided to go home. It has been hard on the district. It is truly unfortunate...

 

There has been a bug going around, so I've been sick for a few days.

 

I am a zone leader, so me and the sister training leaders were responsible for welcoming and orienting the new missionaries in our branch on Wednesday, but because the other zone leader (my old companion) left, and one of the sisters left, the way the new companionships were organized ended up making the whole district greet the new missionaries. They are going to be going to Reno NV and Rochester NY, with one sister going to Oakland CA. It was great fun getting to know all of them.

 

The TRC investigator my and my companion were teaching frustrated us, as much as we love her. She is extremely well versed in the Bible, and she finds that everything we teach her matches up with what she reads in the Bible. She keeps telling us that it all makes sense, but whenever we invited her to be baptized, she said she would when she found out if it was true. We finally told her that we can't convince her with facts, that she has to take that leap of faith and pray to know if the Book of Mormon and what we have taught her is true. I think that was truly the first time in my life that I deeply desired to see somebody make it to the Celestial Kingdom, and had the determination to help them get there. Unfortunately, that was our last meeting with her before we leave for Colorado Springs on Monday. It just goes to show you that all the evidence in the world cannot prove it to you. The evidence you need can't be shared to you by mortal men. It must come in the quiet whisperings of the Holy Spirit.

 

My roommates have quite the amazing story, though. The TRC investigator they were teaching finally opened up and told them everything and that they were the only missionaries at the MTC that she had told it to. At that point they were sure that she was an actual investigator, and not just a member working and the Teaching Resource Center. They told her that God had led her up to this point to meeting them, and that because of what she had gone through, she was holding in her hand a book that she had rejected dozens of times, and that she knew it was true. After their last appointment with her, she stopped them and told them that she wanted to schedule one last appointment with them on her own personal time the next day. Of course they said yes. During that last appointment that the MTC hadn't even scheduled, she told them that the thing she loved more than anything was the feeling the Spirit brought to her when they were there. They told her that she could have that feeling with her everyday if she was baptized. She said she would get baptized. Of course she still needs to take a few more lessons to confirm everything, but she seems ready for baptism. They are going to continue to email her in Colorado. I couldn't be happier for her.

 

I fly to Colorado Springs on Monday. So far as I know, there are going to be 20 missionaries on that plane headed to Colorado.

 

Elder Tibbitts

 

P.S.
My roommates are amazing! They are the funniest group of people I've ever met! I don't think I've laughed this hard in a long time. The amount of inside jokes we have created in the last two weeks in incredible (we counted and we are above 20). I really hope one of them is a companion with me near the end of my mission.